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Why Your Company Must Create Immersive Experiences

In our always-connected lives, expectations of how we want to interact and engage has shifted. We demand fast, sophisticated access to services and data, whether we are engaging as a customer or an employee.

We expect connected systems that work in concert to create an ecosystem of engagement. We want to interact when, how, and where we choose. Already, immersive, omni-channel experiences involving web, mobile, IVR, customer care, email, and chat are the new normal.

For companies with the means to create these immersive experiences, the opportunities are enormous:

Engage. Trans-media storytelling delivers your message to the right audience, via the right channel, at the right time.

Unfortunately, the majority of companies are struggling to create and execute on a comprehensive digital strategy. Only 12% of companies can provide a seamless hand-off between channels, only 7% are set up to deliver effectively orchestrated cross-channel marketing activities, and only 8% say they currently provide a “very integrated” customer experience.

Clear value

The good news is that companies succeeding in this area see tremendous value. Forrester’s Customer Experience Index shows customer experience leaders consistently outperformed the market from 2007 to 2012.

Specifically, these companies experience a rise in customer retention rate, a rise in year over year revenue, and a reduction in cost per customer.

At the same time, they’re watching development costs go down. A focus on user experience means better usability requirements up front, resulting in less rework. User involvement also saves time by helping development teams make better decisions and correctly prioritize development tasks.

Given all that, perhaps it’s not surprising that 78% of senior executives say digital transformation will become critical to their organizations within the next two years, that 70% say creating a frictionless customer experience is one of their top priorities, or that Walker Information predicts customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020.

Ready for more? Our next post will focus on all the factors involved in creating an immersive experience.

Post Date: 8/7/2015

Lisa Woodley

About the author

Lisa Woodley, Vice President of Experience Design at NTT DATA, has more than 15 years of experience successfully leading user experience strategy and design programs for clients across industries. Lisa is also an adjunct faculty member of Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation in Education, responsible for developing and conducting a User Experience Design class for Rutger University’s MBS program.